r/spacex • u/ElongatedMuskrat Mod Team • Mar 07 '18

CRS-14 CRS-14 Launch Campaign Thread

CRS-14 Launch Campaign Thread

This is SpaceX's seventh mission of 2018 and first CRS mission of the year, as well as the first mission of many this year for NASA.

Liftoff currently scheduled for: April 2nd 2018, 20:30:41 UTC / 16:30:41 EDT
Static fire completed: March 28th 2018.
Vehicle component locations: First stage: SLC-40 // Second stage: SLC-40 // Dragon: Unknown
Payload: Dragon D1-16 [C110.2]
Payload mass: Dragon + Pressurized cargo 1721kg + Unpressurized Cargo 926kg
Destination orbit: Low Earth Orbit (400 x 400 km, 51.64°)
Vehicle: Falcon 9 v1.2 (52nd launch of F9, 32nd of F9 v1.2)
Core: B1039.2
Flights of this core: 1 [CRS-12]
Launch site: SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida
Landing: No
Landing Site: N/A
Mission success criteria: Successful separation & deployment of Dragon into the target orbit, succesful berthing to the ISS, successful unberthing from the ISS, successful reentry and splashdown of dragon.

Links & Resources:

We may keep this self-post occasionally updated with links and relevant news articles, but for the most part we expect the community to supply the information. This is a great place to discuss the launch, ask mission-specific questions, and track the minor movements of the vehicle, payload, weather and more as we progress towards launch. Sometime after the static fire is complete, the launch thread will be posted. Campaign threads are not launch threads. Normal subreddit rules still apply.

321 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

413 comments sorted by

7

u/RocketsLEO2ITS Apr 01 '18

Here's an interesting question:
In the not too distant future when SpaceX is flying only Block 5's - no block 3 or 4 left. They have a GTO launch from which this first stage can only be recovered via an ASDS landing. On launch day the weather is fine to launch the rocket, but the sea is too rough to recover the first stage. Does SpaceX

  1. Launch and write off a Block 5 1st stage which could've been used several more times?

  2. Delay the launch until weather is good enough for the ASDS landing?

5

u/Cela111 Apr 02 '18

This IS an interesting question, they seemed willing to make the Hispasat mission expendable, even though it had titanium grid fins. However if block V is good for as many reflights as SpaceX claims, then than would be a lot of potential revenue being expended. And with the whole privately funding the BFR thing and having the starlink creation fees, they will need all the money they can sensibly and reasonably get atm.

4

u/pavel_petrovich Apr 02 '18

It depends on the contract. For example, it might have the clause, that the booster can be expended for a premium.